Rubio urges Lebanon to not return confiscated explosives to Hezbollah, US official says

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun regarding the confiscation of several hundred kilograms of explosives from Hezbollah. According to a US State Department official, Rubio urged Aoun to hold those who ordered, financed, and directed the shipment accountable and stated that returning the explosives to Hezbollah should be out of the question.

The official also noted that Rubio called for direct military-to-military communication between Lebanon and Israel to reduce the risk of clashes and criticized Lebanon’s 1955 Boycott Law as an impractical tool for politicized prosecutions.

A Hezbollah Member of Parliament, Hassan Fadlallah, acknowledged that the 500-kilogram shipment seized last week belonged to the group, describing the cargo and vehicle as belonging to the resistance against Israel. Fadlallah demanded the return of the shipment and called for the release of those arrested during the seizure, which occurred on a road linking eastern Lebanon to Beirut. A judicial source reported the seized materials consisted of 250 kilograms of TNT and 250 kilograms of C-4.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated that the state will no longer tolerate the possession of illegal weapons and said authorities will identify all individuals involved in the operation. According to a judicial source, the use of C-4 has been a point of concern in Lebanon due to its previous use in political assassinations.

Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, Middle East Eye, Jerusalem Post, The National UAE — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.